⁵ Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later …

Faithfulness is the prime commodity, which is in short supply. It is certainly important to God, as suggested in the words of Jesus’ story of the master and his servant, “Well done … you have been faithful” (Luke 19:17). Now in a comparison, to make a point as strong as possible, you choose as great a subject for comparison as possible. Can anyone be a better choice than Moses for this comparison of faithfulness? Aaron and Miriam, not so much. Moses’ siblings had to learn that lesson pointedly when the Lord confronted their insubordination, “If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream. Not so, with My servant Moses, he is faithful in all My household; with him I speak mouth to mouth, even openly, and not in dark sayings, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant, against Moses?” (Num 12:6-7). Indeed, Moses was a great man because of his faithfulness.

He was faithful in God’s house, that is, His people. Through Moses, God laid down a “testimony” that would later bear witness to Jesus Christ Himself. That’s how Jesus understood it: “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me” (John 5:46). “Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures” (Luke 24:27). And Moses was faithful in recording the Law (including the first five books of the OT), constructing the tabernacle and instituting everything God commanded.

But Moses, as great and faithful as he was, was still a servant. The Greek word is found only here in the Bible and suggests that he was an honored servant. But, he was still a servant. To be a greater “servant” than Moses would indeed have been an honor. However, Christ was no servant in the house.

Further, Moses was the agent or vehicle though whom God inaugurated the dispensation or era of Law. What God was looking for in His people, above all else, was faithfulness to Him. Of all the competing religious systems and gods in the ancient world, God revealed Himself to Moses first in the burning bush, then on Mt. Sinai (and apparently in-between). The Law was God’s proclamation on how to live faithfully before Him. Moses was the epitome of faithfulness as a servant among God’s people, and this by God’s estimation!